Discover how the city stood up against the evils of the slave trade, admire its stunning art deco facades, unearth beautiful stained-glass windows by an accomplished yet little-known female artist, take to the windy coastal paths just out of town and peak into caves where smugglers once hid their loot, visit the humble cottage of an American president, uncover the mysteries of Bronze Age burial grounds and Stone Age forts, squeeze down a secret underground tunnel or take a boat ride to see the city’s seal colony, visit the place where Marconi sent his first wireless signal across the waves, go to a cinema shaped like a ship …

Small, yet bursting with history and mystery, Belfast, far from the crowds and the usual clichés, is a reserve of well-concealed treasures that only reveal themselves to those who know how to wander off the beaten track, whether residents or visitors.An indispensable guide for those who thought they knew Belfast well, or who would like to discover the hidden face of the city.

Dr Kathy Curran grew up in south Belfast, and later studied Common and Civil Law (with French) at Queen’s University. She then headed to England to pursue a Masters and Doctorate in criminology at the University of Cambridge. As a criminologist, she loves travelling, exploring, and unearthing gritty stories and tales. She is happiest pottering around ancient graveyards, former prisons and always tries to fit in a trip to a crime museum when on holiday.

Lorenza Bacino is a freelance journalist and travel writer. She is a former radio broadcaster and has also worked as a language teacher, translator and editor. She is usually busy thinking about where to travel to next. Interests and hobbies include books, film and art. Her family would say she needs to improve her cooking skills. Lorenza tends to agree.

Wander through a hidden city orchard, hang out with a 19th-century circus troupe, find a forgotten railway line in the sea, discover Brighton’s only waterfall, visit a hidden pet cemetery, borrow books from the secret library in a fridge, unearth a long-forgotten mural, browse a museum in a back-street chip shop, tap the nose of a gargoyle and make a wish, enter an Earthship, step inside a secret walled garden and play glow-in-the-dark miniature golf with dinosaurs.

Away from the clichéd seaside sights, Brighton is a city full of hidden treasures revealed to residents and travellers who like to wander off the beaten path.

Secret Brighton is the perfect companion for those ready to discover the unusual and underground and see the city through new eyes.

Ellie Seymour is a journalist who has lived in Brighton for 15 years. She writes about the city’s curiosities and hidden places on her blog Ellie & Co., Inc, which she started as a way to rediscover Brighton away from the tourist crowds. She cannot walk past an intriguing alleyway or courtyard without seeing what’s on the other side – and is always looking for the next adventure or hidden place to write about.

A marble plaque that weeps twice a year, exceptional scuba diving among the mosaics and temples of an ancient Roman city, a magnificent amphitheatre full of stone spectators, forgotten pagan traditions, the world’s largest censer, a sublime secret library hidden in a monastery, traces of the beating wings of the Archangel Michael, flagellation in a remarkable penitential rite, pitchers from the Wedding at Cana in an obscure sanctuary, stunning little-known frescoes …

The Campania region, far from the crowds and clichés, has one of the richest cultural heritages in Italy. Whether on the Amalfi Coast, at Pompeii, in the Cilento, at Benevento, or Caserta, or just in the area around Naples, its hidden treasures are revealed only to locals and to travellers who know how to leave the beaten path far behind.

An indispensable guide for those who thought they knew Campania well or who would like to discover other facets of this fascinating region.

The authors:

Maria Franchini – guide and lecturer on the monuments of Campania for fifteen years, was born in Naples. A journalist and the author of several books, she is passionate about Neapolitan culture and is also a specialist in Roman civilisation. She works for the Italian Cultural Centre in Paris, where she runs courses in the Neapolitan language, gives lectures and organises seminars on her favourite subjects. Maria is also co-author of the Jonglez guide Secret Naples.
http://www.sgdl-auteurs.org/maria-franchini/index.php/

Valerio Ceva Grimaldi Pisanelli di Pietracatella, 38, belongs to an old noble Neapolitan family. A journalist by profession, he worked on the staff of the governor of the Province of Naples, Professor Amato Lamberti, then for the Assessorato all’Ambiente del Comune di Napoli. He also spent two years with Rai TV’s Gap programme. He was editor-in-chief of the newspaper Notizie Verdi and deputy editor of Terra, the first environmental daily with a wide distribution. He has published numerous articles and surveys on the City of Naples. If you would like to visit some of the places in the guide, accompanied by the author, email him at: cevagrimaldi@gmail.com

The magnetic pull of a rock which is so strong that a coin sticks, a Miniature Railway track, a lighthouse in the sky, get Married in a Boeing 747, the very first example of “Victoria’s Secret”, a fantastic private garden open one day per year and whose address is given by request only, a very surprising fine dining home restaurant in Alex, fly over the city in a plane that served for WWII in Egypt, South Africa’s oldest monument, a waterfall in the concrete jungle, a fantastic private art collection that can be visited by appointment, the private home of one of South Africa’s most prolific and famous artists of the 20th Century….

Far from the crowds and the usual clichés, Johannesburg is still a reserve of well-concealed treasures that only reveal themselves to those who know how to wander off the beaten track, whether residents or visitors.

An indispensable guide for those who thought they knew Johannesburg well, or who would like to discover the hidden face of the city.

Lisa Johnston is a writer and photographer who was born and grew up in Johannesburg. She has worked variously as a travel, design and art journalist and is drawn to the unique creative pulse of the city and its people.

Claire Bell grew up on Johannesburg’s East Rand, and fell in love with the city at the age of 5, when she first caught a train downtown. A journalist and investigative researcher, she has a masters degree in philosophy from Birkbeck College in London and writes the blog UnpopularEssays.com.

Have lunch with the inmates of a high security prison, stroll through a sex shop into a Mexican restaurant, sing your heart out in a clandestine Korean karaoke club, tap your toes in a gypsy swing club, get pickled in a marooned Irish pub, join the sixties club that’s still swinging, drink cappuccinos made by murderous bikers, play petanque in a central London cellar, tap an oak-tree trunk for whisky …

This guide to London’s most peculiar and under-the-radar bars and restaurants is for serious foodies, intrepid drinkers, urban explorers — and anyone curious to discover the infinite possibilities to have fun in London.

“The perfect gift for that friend who thinks Café Rouge is a bit exotic.” (The Londonist)

“I put the guide to the test around Covent Garden and Soho — two of the most touristy parts of the capital — and uncovered a host of gems I’d never encountered before, despite living there for seven years.” (Rob McFarland, Australian Traveller)

The authors:

Hannah Robinson is a Scottish-born screenwriter, director and author who splits her time between London and Edinburgh. She has made a raft of prize-winning short films and animations, holds two Hollywood feature screenwriting awards and is a script consultant for Sir Lenny Henry. She has worked as a food journalist for The Scotsman and The List magazine, and is the author of Secret Edinburgh, an Unusual Guide for Jonglez – the best-selling guidebook to the city. Hannah is the creative force behind the cultural tourism web project, “The Story of Edinburgh in 101 Objects”. She has recently set up Palindromicals, a creative production company, and is currently making a podcast series about laughter.

Rachel Howard is a journalist and author who has lived in almost every borough in London. A regular contributor to Conde Nast Traveller, The Guardian, and The Telegraph, Rachel writes mainly about travel, food, and the arts. As well as Secret London, An Unusual Guide (also published by Jonglez Publishing), she is the co-author of Mykonos Muse, an insiders’ guide to the wildest Greek island, published by Assouline.

The forgotten café where Fidel Castro and Che Guevara used to meet, a tribute to the city’s ghosts, a mammoth in the metro, a cave transformed into a shrine, an underground parking lot with mosaics dating from 1930, a Baroque altarpiece made from papier mâché, a village based on the principles of Thomas More’s Utopia, secret masterpieces of colonial art in rooms only open around two hours a week, the largest roof garden in Latin America, the photo on which the Oscar statuette is modelled, the first building in the
world faced with a material that can trap urban smog, a road surface designed for praying as you walk …

Far from the crowds and the usual clichés, Mexico City is filled with hidden treasures revealed only to the residents and visitors who leave the beaten path.

An indispensable guide for those who thought they knew the city well or who would like to discover its many other facets.

Mario Yaír T.S. is a history enthusiast and ruthless explorer from Mexico City. He graduated in Audiovisual Communication, organizes guided tours and has collaborated in publications such as Letra Roja, Time Out México and Atlas Obscura. Thanks to his wanderings, he is one of the few people who knows the fourth section of the Forest of Chapultepec, the phantom station of the subway and the tunnels of Coyoacán; in addition to establishing a close friendship with the manatees of Xochimilco and the giant rat of the Merced. He currently resides in Mexico City.

A magnificent private palace that can be visited by reservation, a crocodile mummy in a private library, a chocolate house, an alchemical ceiling in Schönbrunn, one of the most beautiful pharmacies in the world, an exceptional Art Nouveau church , the tomb of a fish that would have converted to Judaism, a jazz museum in public toilets, a public dump that can be visited like a museum, the oldest organ in Vienna hidden behind a painting, an empress dressed as a nun, the mystery of the symbol 05, a masculine sex discreetly sculpted on the cathedral of Vienna, a surprising private museum of billiards, an incredible bouquet where each flower actually consists of several butterfly wings, a source of water that allows to see the lotto figures for a minute, an extraordinary underground annex of the Mauthausen camp where the world’s first jet was built, a «love hôtel» historic of great charm …

An indispensable guide for those who thought of knowing Vienna or for those who wish to discover the other face of the city.

Michaela Lindinger, museum curator, author. Studied media sciences and communication, political science, Egyptology, prehistory and archaeology at the University of Vienna. Assistant curator of Wien Museum since 1995, curator since 2004. Exhibitions and publications on various biographical and social themes, portraits, fashion, death and memory.